AUSTRIA
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Licences for sports betting and horse race betting are available for private operators on a regional basis within Austria, whereas poker, casino, bingo and lottery are controlled by the monopoly, Casinos Austria, which has exclusive rights until 2027.
Status: The CJEU has held that the Austrian casino monopoly is incompatible with EU law in a number of cases, although national courts continue to reach conflicting decisions on the compatibility of Austria's current gambling legislative framework with EU law and the position remains unclear.
BELGIUM
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: All products are available to private operators except for lotteries, which are reserved exclusively for the monopoly provider. However, online operators need to partner with a land-based licence holder in order to satisfy a local establishment requirement; alternatively, apply for one of the retail licences that can be extended to cover online.
Status: There remain valid arguments that the existing regime is incompatible with Belgium's EU Treaty obligations. Active enforcement measures against operators and players are in place. A mandatory, weekly deposit limit of €500 for all customers of licensed operators is in effect. A draft law to introduce an advertising and sponsorship ban has been submitted to parliament.
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BULGARIA
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery (excluding raffles and instant lottery games).
Operator type: All products are available to private operators except for lotteries, which are to be reserved exclusively for the monopoly.
Status: Any operator from an EU/EEA jurisdiction or the Swiss Confederation can apply for a licence. The Bulgarian regulator has awarded approximately 30 licences to date, including to a number of international operators. The government has adopted amendments to the country's gambling legislation to establish a monopoly on lotteries in Bulgaria, with any existing lottery licences to be revoked with immediate effect following the amendment's entry into force.
CROATIA
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: All products are available to private operators except for lotteries, which are reserved exclusively for the monopoly provider. Private operators can only be licensed to offer online gambling if they obtain a land-based casino or betting licence.
Status: Attempts by the Ministry to update its gambling legislation have been subject to criticism in respect of EU incompatibility issues (including the requirement that only holders of land-based licences can offer online gambling). Regulatory reforms appear to have stalled in the country.
CYPRUS
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting and lottery.
Operator type: OPAP has a monopoly over lottery operations; betting licences are available to private operators.
Status: Cyprus regulated online betting in July 2012, although a licensing regime was not established until 2016. ISPs are obliged to implement blocking measures to prohibit Cypriot residents from accessing unlicensed gambling websites. A betting law, which entered into force in March 2019, replaced the 2012 Betting Law. The provisions of the 2019 law are substantially the same, with minor amends introduced to address EU incompatibility concerns under the previous law (such as the requirement to have a local branch in order to obtain a betting licence). An overhaul to player protection measures has been proposed by the betting regulator.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: EU and EEA-based operators are able to apply for licences.
Status: The gambling regulatory regime, which entered into force in the Czech Republic on 1 January 2017, allows EU/EEA companies to enter the market. ISP-blocking measures are active in the jurisdiction. Tax rates reportedly increased to up to 30% of GGR for certain online gambling activities from January 2020.
DENMARK
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, fantasy sports, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Licences for all gambling products are available to private operators save for lotteries, which are controlled by the state monopoly.
Status: The Danish online gambling regime went live on 1 January 2012. ISP-blocking measures are active in the jurisdiction and the Danish Gaming Authority (DGA) has been granted an injunction to block operators and suppliers that have been targeting Danish customers without the requisite licence. As of 1 January 2020, licensed operators are required to ensure that customers have set deposit limits before they are allowed to gamble, although it is understood this applies to online casino only. The DGA introduced new marketing regulations, effective from 1 April 2020. Is kansas star casino open.
ESTONIA
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Licences for all gambling products are available to private operators save for lotteries, which are reserved exclusively for the monopoly operator.
Status: Operators seeking to accept business from players in Estonia must be issued an activity licence for the type of gambling they wish to offer, then an operating permit to provide the services online. A blacklist of operators is maintained and updated by local authorities and ISP and payment blocking is in force. Though some operators argue that the regime is still not compatible with EU law, no notification alleging incompatibility has been issued by the EC since the requirement for licensees to maintain servers in Estonia was removed.
FINLAND
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: All gambling products are under the exclusive control of monopoly provider Veikkaus Oy.
Status: Despite the existence of a national monopoly, EC enforcement action was dropped subsequent to various changes to Finnish laws. Active enforcement measures are in place (restrictive marketing for offshore operators in particular) and the government is exploring measures to further restrict the offshore supply of gambling services. The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority published a report in 2019 criticising the existing regime, citing failures of the current monopolistic system that arguably raise questions over the regime's compatibility with EU law. It is understood that preliminary talks have taken place to reform Finland's gambling laws in 2021.
FRANCE
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Private operators can obtain online licences for sports betting, horse race betting and poker. The monopoly has exclusive rights to bingo and lottery.
Status: A regulated market since the introduction of a licensing regime in 2010, following which the EC withdrew its infringement proceedings. A new regulatory authority, L'autorité Nationale des Jeux, took over from ARJEL in June 2020. Responsible gambling advice has been issued to operators and players during the Covid-19 crisis, with a warning against using bonuses to attract new players to poker.
GERMANY
Regulated gambling products: Schleswig-Holstein, a small northern-German state, regulates sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino and bingo. The other 15 states of Germany currently permit only sports betting and horse race betting, though online poker and virtual slots are currently ‘tolerated' pending the implementation of a new regulatory regime.
Operator type: Private operators can no longer obtain casino licences in Schleswig-Holstein under the existing regime, although S-H has approved legislation to reinstate existing licences until 2021 (with operations allowed to continue in the interim). S-H has also introduced a quasi-licensing regime for sports betting (intended to be of a transitional nature). In the other 15 states, horse race betting licences are available at a regional level. Sports betting licences can be applied for by private operators as of 1 January 2020. Operators that comply with the requirements of the toleration regime in place pending the introduction of legislation in 2021 may offer online poker and virtual slots until that time.
Status: The main legal framework for gambling regulation in Germany has been the subject of much debate and has been heavily criticised by the EC and interested parties/states within Germany for a number of years. Discussions to reform the existing legislation resulted in the approval of the 3rd Amendment Treaty which entered into force on 1 January 2020. The 3rd Amendment Treaty removes the limit on the number of sports betting licences and re-introduces a sports betting licensing process. The ban on online casino remains in place, although there is an exception to the prohibition for S-H. On 12 March 2020, the German prime ministers approved the new Interstate Treaty on Gambling which proposes to bring new licensing options for private operators for online poker and virtual slots (although stringent restrictions, such as stake limits, are expected to be implemented). The Treaty, which has been notified to the EC and is scheduled to enter into force from 1 July 2021, has been approved by state leaders but still needs to be ratified by state parliaments before becoming law. In October 2020 a toleration regime was introduced which permits operators to offer online poker and slots provided they comply with the toleration regime's requirements and certain restrictions (such as stake limits).
GREAT BRITAIN
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: All licences are available to private operators save for lottery, which is reserved exclusively for the monopoly provider, Camelot.
Status: Any operator that transacts with, or advertises to, British residents requires a licence from the Gambling Commission (GC). Licensed operators are required to source gambling software from GC-licensed businesses. In December 2020, the government launched a 'major and wide-ranging' review into the current gambling legislation in Great Britain.
GREECE
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting and lottery.
Operator type: All products are exclusively reserved for the monopoly providers pending the implementation of an open licensing regime, although certain private operators are permitted to operate on a transitional basis.
Status: In 2012, a ‘transition period' commenced, whereby the Greek government granted 24 transitional licences to operators, enabling them to provide services to Greek residents. Legislation, which introduced an open licensing regime for online betting and 'other online games', including casino and poker, entered into force on 30 October 2019. However, the regulations implementing the new legal regime were not published until August 2020. Operators holding a transitional licence may continue to offer services until a decision is made to grant a permanent licence (provided also a further application was submitted prior to 6 September 2020). The opening of the new online market is expected in the short-term.
HUNGARY
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Only the state monopolies (Szerencsejáték Zrt. and Magyar Lóversenyfogadást-Szervezo Kft) and local concession companies can apply for a licence.
Status: Amendments to Hungarian gambling law came into force on 1 October 2015 and allow only two land-based casinos to hold remote casino concessions. The regulator has since issued fines, a number of which have been challenged, against unlicensed operators that continue to target the market. In June 2017, the ECJ determined Hungary's gambling regime to be incompatible with Article 56 TFEU. A subsequent ECJ decision in February 2018 ruled against the Hungarian requirement that online gambling operators must have a land-based licence to offer online gambling services to Hungarian citizens, further strengthening arguments that the current regime is incompatible with EU law.
IRELAND
Regulated gambling products: Online betting regulated since August 2015. Online gaming is not specifically accounted for in Ireland's outdated legislation and as such is currently unregulated.
Operator type: Private operators can apply for a betting licence.
Status: Ireland has contemplated updating its legislation, which will create a comprehensive igaming regime, for some time. The Gambling Control Bill – the legislation which promises to specifically regulate online gambling – has been subject to continued delay and legislative progress is not expected in the short- to medium-term. Interim reform measures intended to modernise the regulation of gambling in Ireland entered into effect on 1 December 2020.
ITALY
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Fully regulated market, although lotteries are the subject of a state monopoly.
Status: Remote gambling licences are granted within specific application windows. The last tender process for applications closed on 19 March 2018. AGCOM, the Italian communications regulator, recently issued its first sanction against an operator for violation of the advertising ban (introduced in 2018). New measures to combat unlicensed gambling, including payment blocking measures, entered into effect in October 2019. The 2020 Budget Law provides for the organisation of a tender for the issuance of licences by 31 December 2020 – it is understood there will be 40 licences available for online gambling. A new tax, which amounts to 0.5% on turnover, is set to be introduced on all bets on sporting events (including virtual sports) until 31 December 2021.
LUXEMBOURG
Regulated gambling products: Lottery.
Operator type: Monopoly.
Status: The general prohibition on gambling appears sufficiently wide to cover all forms of online gambling.
MALTA
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Private operators can apply for a local licence (except for lottery products).
Status: In 2018, Malta approved a new Gaming Act that replaced all existing gaming legislation with a single piece of legislation, supplemented by secondary legislation. The Gaming Act, with directives and regulations, became effective on 1 August 2018.
NETHERLANDS
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Monopoly for all products.
Status: The Remote Gambling Bill, intended to introduce a new regime, was expected to enter into force on 1 January 2021, with a six-month window for licence applications; however a delay until 1 March 2021 is now anticipated. The Dutch regulator has published draft policy rules and licensing permit documentation in relation to the application process. It is understood that operators that have directly ‘targeted' the Dutch market will face a 30-month cooling-off period before being eligible for a licence. Full implementation of a licensing regime is not expected until 1 September 2021. In the interim, the regulator is expected to continue to implement enforcement measures against operators targeting Dutch players.
NORWAY
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting and lottery.
Operator type: Online gambling is reserved for the two monopoly providers, Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto.
Status: The monopoly has extended its offering to include live betting, online bingo and casino games in an attempt to redirect traffic from unlicensed sites. The Norwegian regulator continues to step up enforcement efforts against unregulated operators, local banks and payment service providers. The government has passed amendments to try and stem the flow of gambling supply from offshore, including enhanced enforcement powers to prevent gambling advertising from abroad. Expanded payment blocking provisions entered into effect on 1 January 2020. Draft legislation consolidating Norway's various gambling laws is currently being considered.
POLAND
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, casino and poker.
Operator type: Betting licences are available for companies with a representative in Poland. Casino and poker are reserved for a state monopoly.
Status: Legislation enacted on 1 January 2012 permits betting. Online gaming (including poker) is no longer prohibited as of 1 April 2017, although the exclusive rights to offer such products are reserved for a state monopoly. Provisions that provide for the establishment of a blacklist of unlicensed operators and ISP and payment blocking came into force on 1 July 2017. The blacklist contains more than 1,000 domain names.
PORTUGAL
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Any EU/EEA operator can apply to be granted a licence for online gambling. Lottery games and land-based fixed-odds sports betting remain reserved for a monopoly.
Status: A regulated market since 2015. Although operators can apply for licences, their Portuguese revenue streams are subject to comparatively high tax rates, particularly in sports betting. Portugal's 2020 Budget will implement changes to the current taxation rates applicable to selected gambling products offered online.
ROMANIA
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Any operator from an EU/EEA jurisdiction or the Swiss Confederation can apply for a licence. Lottery games remain reserved for the monopoly.
Status: The Gambling Law (as amended) introduced a legal framework for a fully regulated online gambling market and requires licences to be held by online gambling operators, as well as software providers, payment processors, affiliates and testing labs. The secondary legislation that fully implemented the new licensing regime came into force on 26 February 2016. The gambling regulator actively polices the regime and notifies ISPs to block blacklisted websites. A legislative proposal to further amend the Gambling Law was submitted to the Romanian Senate in September 2020.
SLOVAKIA
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Private operators can apply for licences for online casino and for sports betting licences. Lottery and bingo remain reserved for the monopoly provider.
Status: The Gambling Law came into force on 1 March 2019. The Gambling Law allows private operators outside of Slovakia to apply for licences for sports betting and casino, although sports betting licences did not take effect until 1 July 2020.
SLOVENIA
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Online gambling must be operated by land-based casinos or lotteries and, as a result, only the monopoly holds online licences in Slovenia.
Status: The requirement that only land-based Slovenian operators are eligible for licences is considered by certain industry stakeholders to be incompatible with EU law. Draft amendments to the Gaming Act were published in 2015, which aimed to remove the current local establishment requirement. However, the proposal does not appear to have been submitted to parliament to date. Whether any proposed amendments will ultimately introduce an open licensing system remains unclear.
SPAIN
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Private operators can apply for licences for all gambling products save for lottery.
Status: Operators must hold a general licence and a specific licence, both issued by the National Gambling Commission, for each activity. Remote gambling licences are granted within specific application windows. The last tender process for applications closed on 18 December 2018. In November 2020, Spain introduced significant restrictions on gambling advertising, sports sponsorship and welcome bonuses.
SWEDEN
Regulated gambling products: Betting (including sports, horse race, pool, exchanges), casino, poker, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Licences are available for private operators.
Status: As of 1 January 2019, Sweden is a fully regulated market. All gambling operators that wish to offer their services to Swedish residents will be required to obtain a licence in order to validly do so (either a ‘betting' licence or a ‘commercial online games' licence, depending on the product(s) being offered). Active enforcement measures are in place. Temporary regulations, which were introduced on 2 July 2020 in response to the Covid-19 crisis, restrict, among other things, deposit and loss limits (applicable to casino only) and total login time. The measures were due to be lifted by the end of 2020 but in December 2020 the Swedish government decided to extend the restrictions until at least the end of June 2021.
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Slovenia has had legal gambling ever since 1989 when they achieved their independence from Yugoslavia, although for the first few years it went on completely unregulated. So while gambling places did spring up during this time, they operated outside the realm of government control, and governments really do like to get involved in seeking to control gambling and especially to tax it, so it was just a matter of time before a law was created to do just that. Restaurant du casino joa etretat.
It did take 6 years though to put this together, and the government eventually came up with the 1995 Gambling Act, which licensed and regulated all gambling establishments in Slovenia.
It can be instructive to look at how long it takes governments to pass gambling legislation to get an idea of how fast any future changes might take, and there is generally a good correlation between past and future legal changes like this. So from this we can say with some confidence anyway that changes in Slovenian gambling law don't happen as fast as you may see elsewhere, and this seems to still be the case when it comes to planned future legislative and regulatory change as well.
There is a surprising amount of live gambling in Slovenia for its size, although a lot of the land based gambling is directed at tourists more than it is residents, although it's pretty popular with residents as well. In particular, Slovenian casinos are known to attract a lot of people from over the border in Italy, and gambling revenue from tourists accounts for about a quarter of Slovenian's tourist revenue, which is an incredibly high amount, and serves to show how important the gambling industry is to the economy of this country. (1)
There are a total of 13 casinos in Slovenia spread across 11 different cities, which is a very large number for a country of this smaller size, with a population of only 2 million people. In comparison, neighbor Italy has about 60 million people and is also much larger in area and has only 5 casinos. (2)
9 of their 13 casinos offer live poker, with a total of 34 poker tables located in the country, including 12 at the Hotel Casino Perla, Slovenia's largest casino.
So while we can say that this isn't a large number of poker tables, it's all relative, as this is more action then you see in countries that are much larger. So Slovenians that want to play live poker do have some pretty good access, and given the small physical size of Slovenia, any location in the country is only an easy drive away, which makes things pretty easy.
Slovenia's Attempts At Online Gambling Regulation
Of course, the easiest way to play poker for money is to just play it on your computer, and many Slovenians enjoy this pastime, the same way that players in other countries do. Poker isn't quite as popular in Slovenia as it is in some other European countries, but it still has a good following.
The Slovenian government has been kicking around the idea of regulating online gambling for a few years now, although once again, things don't seem to move all that fast as far as legal and regulatory change goes, and the original plan was to have this in place in early 2014, and it may be a while yet before things get all sorted out and we actually see regulated gambling here.
The focus of this plan is on online casinos though, which is the online gambling that most Slovenians play, and the plan is to set up a framework where licenses would be issued to companies wishing to offer sanctioned online gambling to Slovenians, where the government would of course collect tax revenue for allowing this. (3)
This new law also comes with a threat of banning websites as well as heavy fines for companies who do not comply with the new regulations, in other words offer play to Slovenians without licensure and approval from the Slovenian government.
As far as fines go, this would only apply to domestic online gambling companies, as they can't fine foreign companies for not complying with their laws as these companies are located in different countries with different laws, and it is those laws that apply to them, not Slovenia's.
This is the real beauty of the internet, as it opens the whole world up to players who wish to gamble, although governments do seek to limit these freedoms as best they can, although not very effectively.
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Slovenia's Efforts To Control Online Poker and Online Gambling
Slovenia has already attempted to block several foreign gambling sites, as several other countries have done, but websites have created other web addresses not on the list, creating a moving target of sorts. So you can try to block pokerstars.com for instance but they can come up with a different domain or several more for that matter, and these gambling websites generally don't take any of this lying down.
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Even more notably, all players have to do is to use a virtual network, which means connecting to a computer in another country which then connects to the internet from there, and therefore if there is a website you can't access with your own IP address, you simply use a different one provided by these services and are now outside the control of the authorities in your home country. This is how people in many countries get around internet restrictions, including the very tight ones in China for instance.
So while the government in Slovenia would like people to not play at foreign online poker sites, there's very little that they can do to stop this, and while these tactics can keep the uninitiated away, they do nothing to stop people that are in the know about getting around internet restrictions generally, and the online poker sites themselves are also making counter moves to make it easier for players in certain countries to access their websites.
It's possible that Slovenia may one day come up with a scheme that will allow some of these foreign online poker sites to receive licenses, like has been done in several other European countries, but for now the licensing of online poker isn't even an issue that is being looked at, and they are having enough trouble working out things to get casino gambling regulated, and it remains to be seen if that will even be successful, as the big online casinos may simply ignore it as they currently do.
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In the mean time Slovenia has only made a half hearted effort to prevent people from playing online poker, they did try to block pokerstars.com but that didn't really keep people from playing at Poker Stars, so things for now will just continue on as normal, which is just fine if you're a Slovenian online poker player.
References:
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1. Online Gambling Sites in Slovenia
2. Slovenia Casinos
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3. Slovenia Next In Line To Legalize Online Gambling and Casinos
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